VEGAN CASHEW CHEESE

Are you intolerant to dairy or whey? Are you Vegan or Paleo or experimenting with Vegan/Paleo?  Are you generally interested in trying different, healthy recipes? This Vegan Cheese alternative is for you!

Personally, I just discovered that I have a sensitivity to Whey so I’ve been trying different options where I would normally have used dairy products.

I love to always have a jar of “Base Cheese” in the fridge which I can add different herbs and spices to or thin-out as I like for different dishes during the week.

Recipe Type: GF, DF, RSF, V, Paleo

Serves 20
Time 5 min

Ingredients:

Base Cream Cheese

• 1 C raw cashews, soaked in water for 5 hours or overnight.

For Cashew Cheese, add

• 1 large clove garlic, chopped
• 1 t salt
• 1 T Olive Oil
• 2 T Lemon Juice
• Optional 1-2 T nutritional yeast (this gives a really ‘cheesy flavour’ but don’t worry if you don’t have it).
• Extra water as per desired consistency.

Some turkey meatballs I made, on top of green veggies, topped with my Brazil Nut Parmesan. Plus a roasted mini-eggplant topped with a drizzle of this “base cheese” thinned out and flavoured with lemon juice, oregano, basil, garlic and pepper.

Other flavour options:

• Lemon zest and pepper
• Dried herbs like rosemary, thyme, basil, parsely.
• Sun-dried tomatoes, olives.
• Chilli flakes
• Chives
• Lime zest and pepper
• Salt and Vinegar
• Honey and ginger (nice topping for cakes or fruit salads)
• Cinnamon and nutmeg (nice topping for cakes or fruit salads)

Method:

1. Strain the water from the soaked cashews and place into a food processor.
2. Process until mixture comes together into a ball – you’ll need to stop a couple of times to scrape down the sides.
   • You can use this as a base for many different things eg:
     • As a thickener in soups/smoothies
     • In place of sour cream for Mexican dishes or with Wedges (just add some more water).
     • In place of dairy cream for desserts (add some honey and a little more water).
     • Mix with capers and extra lemon juice as a sauce for fish.
     • Use it as a dip base.
     • A base for a vegan aioli to drizzle over roast vegetables.
3. Add your flavour options to the food processor and process until well combined.
4. Add more water if you’d like the cheese to be more runny/creamy.
5. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge and use as per your desired option above! The cheese will firm-up in the fridge.
6. Alternatively you could press the mixture down into a baking tray and place in fridge to set it like a ‘block’ of cheese then slice as desired.